-- A blog of the Office of Leadership, Service and Engagement --

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Volunteers Stay Green

On Saturday, April 10th, 17 Elmhurst College students and staff served at SCARCE (School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education), an environmental education organization in Glen Ellyn, IL. While there, the group assisted with the Book Rescue Program, sorting and coding books for shelving in the SCARCE library. These books are donated to low income schools, families, alternative education programs and special education programs. In 2009 the book rescue program gave 11,000 books to nearly 2,000 families during the Back-To-School Fair.

Additionally, many volunteers worked on the Crayon Rescue Program, peeling wrappers, sorting colors, and preparing old, broken crayons to be melted down so that they can become new crayons. The reformed crayons, called Super Crayons, are larger than standard crayons. These Super Crayons are donated to schools and programs that work with children with special needs.


SCARCE does more than just this though. The organization has four other rescue programs as well as other recycling and educational programs for families, schools and communities. SCARCE, started in 1990, is a green organization that strives not only to educate its volunteers and participants, but also activate them to help create a sustainable future.

For more information on SCARCE please visit http://www.bookrescue.org/default.asp